training/tv/unsupported-features-tv.jd

page.title=Handling Features Not Supported on TV
parent.title=Designing for TV
parent.link=index.html

trainingnavtop=true
previous.title=Optimizing Navigation for TV
previous.link=optimizing-navigation-tv.html

@jd:body

<div id="tb-wrapper">
<div id="tb">

<h2>This lesson teaches you to</h2>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#WorkaroundUnsupportedFeatures">Work Around Features Not Supported on TV</a></li>
  <li><a href="#CheckAvailableFeatures">Check for Available Features at Runtime</a></li>
</ol>

</div>
</div>

<p>
TVs are much different from other Android-powered devices:
</p>
<ul>
  <li>They're not mobile.</li>
  <li>Out of habit, people use them for watching media with little or no interaction.</li>
  <li>People interact with them from a distance.</li>
</ul>

<p>
Because TVs have a different purpose from other devices, they usually don't have hardware features
that other Android-powered devices often have. For this reason, the Android system does not
support the following features for a TV device:
<table>
<tr>
<th>Hardware</th>
<th>Android feature descriptor</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Camera</td>
<td>android.hardware.camera</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>GPS</td>
<td>android.hardware.location.gps</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Microphone</td>
<td>android.hardware.microphone</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Near Field Communications (NFC)</td>
<td>android.hardware.nfc</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Telephony</td>
<td>android.hardware.telephony</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Touchscreen</td>
<td>android.hardware.touchscreen</td>
</tr>
</table>
</p>

<p>
This lesson shows you how to work around features that are not available on TV by:
<ul>
  <li>Providing work arounds for some non-supported features.</li>
  <li>Checking for available features at runtime and conditionally activating/deactivating certain code
  paths based on availability of those features.</li>
</ul>
</p>


<h2 id="WorkaroundUnsupportedFeatures">Work Around Features Not Supported on TV</h2>

<p>
Android doesn't support touchscreen interaction for TV devices, most TVs don't have touch screens,
and interacting with a TV using a touchscreen is not consistent with the 10 foot environment. For
these reasons, users interact with Android-powered TVs using a remote. In consideration of this,
ensure that every control in your app can be accessed with the D-pad. Refer back to the previous two lessons
<a href="{@docRoot}training/tv/optimizing-layouts-tv.html">Optimizing Layouts for TV</a> and
<a href="{@docRoot}training/tv/optimizing-navigation-tv.html">Optimize Navigation for TV</a> for
more details
on this topic. The Android system assumes that a device has a touchscreen, so if you want your application
to run on a TV, you must <strong>explicitly</strong> disable the touchscreen requirement in your manifest file:
<pre>
&lt;uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.touchscreen" android:required="false"/&gt;
</pre>
</p>

<p>
Although a TV doesn't have a camera, you can still provide a photography-related application on a TV.
For example, if you have an app that takes, views and edits photos, you can disable its picture-taking
functionality for TVs and still allow users to view and even edit photos. The next section talks about how to
deactivate or activate specific functions in the application based on runtime device type detection.
</p>

<p>
Because TVs are stationary, indoor devices, they don't have built-in GPS. If your application uses location
information, allow users to search for a location or use a "static" location provider to get
a location from the zip code configured during the TV setup.
<pre>
LocationManager locationManager = (LocationManager) this.getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);
Location location = locationManager.getLastKnownLocation("static");
Geocoder geocoder = new Geocoder(this);
Address address = null;

try {
  address = geocoder.getFromLocation(location.getLatitude(), location.getLongitude(), 1).get(0);
  Log.d("Zip code", address.getPostalCode());

} catch (IOException e) {
  Log.e(TAG, "Geocoder error", e);
}
</pre>
</p>

<p>
TVs usually don't support microphones, but if you have an application that uses voice control,
you can create a mobile device app that takes voice input and then acts as a remote control for a TV.
</p>

<h2 id="CheckAvailableFeatures">Check for Available Features at Runtime</h2>

<p>
To check if a feature is available at runtime, call
{@link android.content.pm.PackageManager#hasSystemFeature(String)}.
 This method takes a single argument : a string corresponding to the
feature you want to check. For example, to check for touchscreen, use
{@link android.content.pm.PackageManager#hasSystemFeature(String)} with the argument
{@link android.content.pm.PackageManager#FEATURE_TOUCHSCREEN}.
</p>

<p>
The following code snippet demonstrates how to detect device type at runtime based on supported features:

<pre>
// Check if android.hardware.telephony feature is available.
if (getPackageManager().hasSystemFeature("android.hardware.telephony")) {
   Log.d("Mobile Test", "Running on phone");
// Check if android.hardware.touchscreen feature is available.
} else if (getPackageManager().hasSystemFeature("android.hardware.touchscreen")) {
   Log.d("Tablet Test", "Running on devices that don't support telphony but have a touchscreen.");
} else {
    Log.d("TV Test", "Running on a TV!");
}
</pre>
</p>

<p>
This is just one example of using runtime checks to deactivate app functionality that depends on features
that aren't available on TVs.
</p>